According to information supplied to FXI, Nu Metro intends withdrawing The Exorcist from its cinemas. This is undoubtedly due to the statements emanating from certain Christian groupings. Because FXI believes that the opinions of these groups, and more specifically the Rhema Church, should not dictate what South Africans should or should not see, it has written to Nu Metro urging the group to re-consider its decision. Throughout the apartheid era, South Africans were held hostage to the censorship of a narrow-minded Calvinistic regime. Today we have enlightened legislation which recognizes that citizens should be able to choose for themselves what they wish to consume. The statements emanating from the Rhema Church suggest that it wishes to impose its interpretation of morality on all South Africans. This is the very essence of censorship: people deciding for others what they believe is good or bad for them - sometimes even when they themselves have not even seen the material. We have got beyond state censorship, let us now not have self-censorship because some sections of the population reject something. If this happens it could have a spiralling effect leaving very little untouched.

RELEASED 23 January 2001 Contact: Laura Pollecutt Executive Director, 083 604 1073